A gloomy Economic Outlook for asia the International Monetary fund says there will be 0 growth in the region for the 1st time since the 1960 s. Because of the coronavirus and great art inspired by self isolation if youre getting bored at home try reproducing well known works of art in your own living room bedroom or bathroom. Im sorry kelly welcome to the Program Germany is preparing to gradually reopen its schools and allow smaller shops to resume business chancellor Angela Merkel and mounts the measures on wednesday after consulting the leaders of germanys 16 states now many restrictions will remain in place as the country continues to fight the corona virus pandemic the chancellor said that the countrys efforts to contain the outbreak have been partially successful but that the situation remains fragile. Its been 3 weeks since chancellor Angela Merkel announced the initial restrictions on contact now theyre being largely extended social distancing rules will remain in place until may 3rd groups will remain limited to 2 people and at least 1. 5 meters must be kept from others from may 4th the schools will gradually reopen 1st for School Leavers in primary and secondary education day care will remain shut religious gatherings will also remain banned while major events including germanys beloved football will be called off until august 31st. Meanwhile restaurants cafes theatres cinemas and music venues will keep their shutters down only shops up to 800. 00 metres squared can reopen from monday facemasks are also being recommended in shops and on transport announcing the amended restrictions chancellor Angela Merkel warned against complacency. What weve achieved is an interim success no more no less and i emphasise it is a fragile interim success this is now determined our deliberations that should be no rushing forward even if its with the best intentions we have to understand that as long as theres no vaccine we have to live with the virus. As came in to become an. Instant. Controls along germanys land borders with its neighbors in the shenk in free travel zone will also remain in place for another 20 days. So how do people in berlin feel about the new measures. And im not surprised and i assume that it will continue on like this. First its ok easing the restrictions is more difficult than the shutdown its like being on a diet when youre strict its ok but the moment you start loosening the rules is when the danger starts. Your problem but im looking for the bars in the clubs again. For now germany will continue keeping its distance. And for more lets bring in now lars felt he is the chairman of the German Council of Economic Experts and of the panel of experts at the Science Academy leopold vienna that presented the plan for how German Authorities should reopen the country thank you so much for joining us this afternoon hello good afternoon we heard their chancellor Angela Merkel saying that we have to live with the virus until this vaccine is found but that will probably not be until the middle of next year so id like to ask you because you have recommended easing this lockdown now is it really realistic. Well what what we need to do is. Insufficient information based on the. Lowly. Me and social life. This is what the government is now doing it is. Something stand to grill. Ask every 2 weeks of work the yard come what the results of this. Relaxation is whether there is an increasing number of protections are not and then we can have additional opening. Measures for the economy of social life and. Rest of the year we have to find out whether the restrictions that are going to be lifted or whether we need to continue with them in order to keep the number of infections so until we have a vaccine. But its a delicate balance as an air between you know lifting the restrictions with the economy in mind and having the structures in place with human lives in mind how do you strike that balance. Well im happy that the government just like this. Ability. What you need to find out is what is the situation. At the moment. Given or health system. Not half difficulties to cope with the number of inspections that system so. Its. Not reached the capacity of one as a system yet. It is necessary to keep its debt level to ensure that we dont have. A number of inspections in hospitals which would be beyond pesty of those hospitals and this is meaning that every step. That the government is not going to take the next couple of weeks. Looking at those infections and on the other hand it must ensure our information that the databases on which these decisions are taken this improve from week to be so this is also very important and. We also have the economy in my in mind or rather those officials have the economy in mind and there are several models that are out there which predict that the German Economy could recover quite quickly after this crisis if you had your crystal ball in front of you given you know the challenges that are ahead what sort of timeline do you think that we are looking at. Well when we. Presented or projections for the economy for this year couple of weeks ago we saw this 5 weeks of shutdown 1st slowly. d opening up 30 economy again. Which cost us about 3 percent of g. D. P. So a minus 2 percent given that. Is continuing much more strongly into realizations of not so long but expect that the downturn is much much stronger that theyre going to have a recession. So this is the situation im thinking about im still believing that you can realize nation of Economic Development so a sharp decline in the 2nd order of 2020 and then sharper increase starting sometime in the order continue next year. What we need to await. Well with this as much as we can is a w. Formation. If of infections. Ok so but no matter which way you cut it you think that this is really painful here for the economy we thank you for that analysis and that perspective lars feld chairman of the German Council of Economic Experts. Thank you very much there. Well we go from germany now to asia and the i. M. F. Says that the Asia Pacific Region will experience 0 growth this year for the 1st time since the 1960 s. Due to the massive economic damage caused by the corona virus the new report warns that the impact in asia will be quote severe across the board and unprecedented massive drops in industrial and retail activity major supply Chain Disruption and huge collapse in demand from europe and north america have been felt across the continent since the start of the year. Is very unclear and couldnt from business whos covering the story for us i mean its quite clear the coronavirus having a devastating effect economically what are the biggest factors for the i. M. F. Shaping the outlook in particular in asia well i think when you look at it theres no good time to have a Global Health fund make but the timing in this case was particularly bad because asian economies were already slowing down because of the u. S. China trade war and economies were slowing generally marie whos the i. M. F. Secada most economist he said that a just Service Sector in particular will struggle youre going to have airlines factories shops and restaurants much like youre seeing here in europe and in the in the rest of the world but it is the worst recession since the Great Depression a synchronized contraction is what were seeing as well so its all happening at once which is also a big problem for asia which is so dependent on trade the worst recession since the Great Depression and a lot of people are also looking at you know the last crisis to really rock the Global Economy that was the crisis of 2009 back then we saw china really pull the Global Economy out of it they they were able to pick up some of the slack and it sounds like they cant do that this time around no back then the chinese economy was growing 9 percent more over 9 percent even during the whole the whole period of the recession this time its under a lot more pressure it doesnt it just doesnt have that seem to have the money that it did to. Help its still got the trade issues going on. Even though its factories of started to to produce goods again theres nowhere to sell them so china isnt going to be able to bail out the World Economy this time around talk to us a little bit more about the infrastructures that are in place especially in asia when were talking about social safety nets for example i mean thats not necessarily something that exists in many countries so what can be done in asia to prevent people from slipping through the cracks during this downturn i think its exactly like you say i mean these are emerging economies a lot of them you have your tigers and everything but its still its a very very difficult a lot of these very poor countries. Which were just coming into into high periods of growth i think with the i. M. F. Is saying is that whatever it takes they they say that governments should just do whatever means necessary to to try and rescue the situation they should use policy they can use whatever means necessary they can apply to the i. M. F. For money as indeed many of them have so theres lots of different options open but they need to use everyone Clifford Clinton for business thank you. Well in china life may be gradually returning to normal after lifting lockdowns but people are proving hesitant about going shopping again so will han the city where the coronavirus was 1st detected is to hand out millions of vouchers to try and tempt people into start spending even at the once popular fish market business remains slow. Unloading the catch of the day and will have the city was the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe experts say the virus originated in this wet market apart from fresh meat and seafood it also sold wild animals such as bats thought to be the source of the disease. While the hunan Seafood Market remains closed most markets have now reopened to the dismay of International Health experts and politicians. Many locals are less worried. So you talk and i think its ok if you go to the Seafood Market this virus wont affect our eating habits because its a special case and there is a lot we dont know for instance we havent confirmed that it comes from the you nancy food market we have eaten wild animals for thousands of years you know what they may have had some problems during processing so we should be more careful with that by cooking them more and checking if theyre fresh. Difficult to get hold of. The markets or a traditional and affordable way of shopping in china and customers are returning. Oh where it went ok its a similar to supermarkets so its relatively safe there but also go often if its unsafe because supermarkets are more expensive still vendors complain that business is slow as many shoppers now prefer more expensive but hygienic supermarkets as some return to the markets for affordable food others fear getting more than theyve bargained for. And heres a look now at some other stories making news around the world the 1st flight carrying unaccompanied children from greek migrant councils arrived in luxembourg a number of European Countries have agreed to resettle 600 children from overcrowded camps on greek islands around 50 will travel to germany on saturday activists have criticized e. U. Governments for not accepting more Australian Police have arrested 3 people at an Immigration Detention Center in sydney after they refused to end a route rooftop protest detainees are angry that the government has refused to release them from the center during the pandemic and has denied requests for covert 19 testing. Partial results from south koreas general election show a landslide election victory for the left leaning governing party the Democratic Party looks set to gain a majority in the National Assembly boosted by an effective 1st sponsor to the coronavirus the election was carried out under a strict social distancing rules. All there has been International Condemnation of Donald Trumps decision to freeze u. N. Funding of the World Health OrganizationPresident Trump accused the u. N. Body of failing in its response to the corona Virus Outbreak although he has been under fire for his handling of the pandemic now for its part the w. H. O. Says it regrets. Trumps move have a look at. The World Health Organizations response to the white house on wednesday was clear the worlds most vulnerable may now be at greater risk. W. H. O. Works to improve the health of many of the worlds poorest and most notable people bluto is not only fighting corbett 9 to trumps decision to cut w. H. O. Funding amid a pandemic has stunned the Global Community and drawn criticism from experts back home. You know credible. Concerns. Absolutely can be raised right now from that. Perspective we believe that the president should reconsider its decision despite the backlash trump on wednesday reiterated his concerns over the w h os handling of the early stages of the outbreak. And you see what happened in italy you see what happened to spain you see what happened to france. W h os guidance had failed to control their borders at a very crucial phase quickly unleashing the contagion around the world the us is now the worst affected country worldwide with more cases and more deaths than anywhere else white house critics believe more should have been done by the trumpet ministration of that the president is now deflecting blame the United NationsHealth Agency says unity is needed now more than ever should and as we just heard there the United States is now the epicenter of the coronavirus endemic and its disproportionately impacting African Americans in the country in some states and cities black americans make up a majority of the deaths from the virus correspondent Stefan Simons went to a hospital in washington d. C. To find out more. This is how far we are allowed to follow doctors and nurses to one of 2 intensive care units at Howard University hospital. This Medical Center in washington d. C. Has been serving the Africanamerican Community in the city for over 150 years. Most of our patients up for. Most of our patients live in help desert. Uninsured or underinsured. Most are unemployed and have other this proportionate. Paul social determinants of health here in washington and elsewhere across the country high quality primary and preemptive care can often be absent and im affordable in poorer neighborhoods and communities the lack of access to healthy food sources is another factor that accounts for the stark difference in numbers of covert 1000. 00 related deaths in predominantly africanamerican and white communities. This is dr wendy others she spent years researching the root causes and impact of what she says are systemic inequities on predominantly africanamerican and minority. Shes not surprised that black americans are impacted by covert 19 and a disproportionately higher rate. Free. You have a higher does higher proportion of individuals with hypertension with diabetes with obesity these things that are the leading causes of death in the country and the chronic disease the leading chronic diseases in this country its not surprising that individuals that are already had that higher proportion of those immunocompromised diseases would then be at the higher end of the toll. And one of the most economically and socially deprived areas in the District Of Columbia table a Nonprofit Organization that serves underprivileged communities is based here providing healthy food and offers education healthy food choices among other things for many residents of. Despair for the hard by the coronavirus the work carried out day in day out is critical this is a theres only 2 Grocery Stores in this neighborhood and theres a lot of people that dont have the resources to either get there or shop there so we came here because we knew that this is where the food resources were needed as well as the education giving families healthy food choices they normally cant afford is perhaps just a bandaid right now but many hope that americas Coronavirus Crisis could finally trigger a real policy change that aims at making underprivileged communities healthier more affluent and with that more resilient to a Public Health crisis in the future. And i am joined now by calypso shell could do director of the Global Health policy think tank the center for Global Development in london thank you so much for joining us this afternoon and id like to begin by asking you because some have called the coronav